


Like Tea for Whiskey

by BlindCupid



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/M, Female Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:00:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,975
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24708736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlindCupid/pseuds/BlindCupid
Summary: Sirius Black has a headache. Maybe it’s the hangover or maybe it’s the sudden appearance of Snape slamming things around in his kitchen and demanding he explain himself.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Severina Snape, Sirius Black/Severus Snape
Comments: 31
Kudos: 460





	1. Chapter 1

Sirius Black had a headache and his mouth felt like he had been sucking on cotton all night. He moaned and that seemed to be all the strength he had in him. His body felt heavy, weighed down, half sprawled on the table in Grimmauld Place. The bottle of fire whiskey laid on its side on the table, as empty and dejected as himself. 

Right beside his head, glass slammed down against the wood of the table, sending a nauseating _bang_ that rattled his brain. 

“Bloody hell!” He grumbled and sat up so quickly that his vision spun and he grabbed at his head to steady the room. 

He blinked several times before the dark figure standing beside him came into focus. Sirius groaned. 

“What do you want?”

Snape only raised an impatient eyebrow. 

“Dumbledore sent me. Drink the sober up potion so I can leave.” She said, looking pointedly at the potion she had slammed down on the table next to his head.

Sirius glared at her as he took up the potion and downed it quickly. As soon as he was sober, he went to the cabinet.

“Thanks for the potion. Don’t let the fire singe you on your way out.”

Before he could reach for the bottle of fire whiskey, the bottle flew right passed his ear, narrowly avoiding hitting him in the head. He spun to Snape who held the bottle in between her slender fingers.

Sirius blinked at her and after a beat asked, “Care for a nightcap?” and pulled out two tumblers. 

“It’s the middle of the day, Black.” 

“Oh good, I was afraid I had wasted the day away.” Sirius snarked bitterly.

“Black, you do realize you are being pathetic, don’t you?” 

Sirius didn’t answer. His eyes raked over Snape. Surely she had some feminine features hiding under all that... black. Sirius laughed at his internal innuendo and stepped toward her, eyes smoldering. He didn’t miss how her eyes blinked and widened and how her jaw relaxed a little. As he neared he watched her chest rise and freeze, holding her breath. 

He smiled smugly and reached for the bottle, but she moved it away. 

“You can have it after you’ve explained to me why you need it.”

Sirius's eyes flashed with emotion that he quickly stamped down with a shrug. 

“I’m bored. I always hated this place. I couldn’t wait to get away. Now I’m stuck here.”

Snape didn’t say anything, waiting for him to get to the damn point and stop making excuses. Sirius stepped even closer into her space. Snape stood her ground but was forced to look up at him. He rested a heavy hand on her waist, brushing the fabric of her thick black robes, feeling the hint of a feminine curve. 

“I hardly remember the last time I had a woman. I suppose you’ll do. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that.” 

Snape didn’t react, her face went blank and any hint of emotion, gone. 

“If you’re not going to tell me, then I suppose I must be the one to state the obvious.” She said.

Sirius scoffed and considered groping her ass. Maybe he could at least get a decent duel in today.

“You’re guilty." She said, "and your guilt is eating away at you.”

Sirius moved away from her and his nostrils flared with rage. 

“I’m innocent. I wasn’t even given a trial. It was Peter all along. You damn well know that!”

Snape inclined her head slightly, “Perhaps.”

Sirius shook his head and barked, “It’s your fault! It’s all your fucking fault!”

Snape’s jaw clenched and her spine snapped straighter, if that was even possible.

“I would never have suggested Peter as the secret keeper... I would never have doubted Dumbledore enough to switch it to Peter right under his nose if it wasn’t for you! He brought you in as his ‘little spy’” Sirius spat, “James and I couldn’t trust him anymore because he trusted _you_!”

Snape’s eyes narrowed and the muscles in her neck twitched. 

“Peter... that rat.” Sirius spat angrily, eyes tearing up. 

Snape spoke, almost to the floor, “I knew... or at least I suspected, you weren’t the secret keeper. It didn’t seem like you to have turned sides, especially at the risk of Potter. You being accused of murdering Pettigrew was, also, rather telling.” 

Sirius glared at her in disgust, “If you knew I was innocent why didn’t you tell Dumbledore? At least insist on my fair trial?” Sirius accused.

Snape shrugged, “You think Dumbledore couldn’t have figured it out on his own? And I’d have been doing you more harm then good if I, a Death Eater, had insisted on a trial. The same could be said of Lupin, the werewolf. Maybe it was for the same reason you didn’t escape until you had served twelve years.”

“What reason would that be?”

“I’m not really here to humor you, Black. You know very well why.”

Sirius turned and looked off into the distance, his eyes emptying.

Snape sighed, “Fine... I’d hate to pass up a chance to twist that knife of guilt you’re so obviously carrying around inside of you.” She moved to stand before him. “Dumbledore left you there, I left you there, Lupin left you there, and you left yourself there because you knew that even though you were innocent of betraying Potter and Lily, you were no less guilty of murder.”

Sirius shook his head and laughed, “No, no... You think you’re so smart, but you’re not. I thought maybe you...” he looked almost crazy, “no... no... no... I’m innocent...”

“I think there are at least _twelve_ muggle families, who would disagree. Is that why you waited to escape? A year for each innocent life you took in your rash actions for vengeance?”

His eyes snapped to her and his breath quickened.

“You’re not the only one carrying guilt around, Black. Your godson needs you, pull yourself together.”

She placed the whiskey on the table and turned to leave, but he gripped her wrist and pulled her back.

“Wait.” He begged her and she arched a single eyebrow at him.

“Unhand me, mutt.” She sneered.

“Please just stay. I-I need your help...”

“I have no interest in helping you.”

“If that were true, you wouldn’t be here.”

He pulled her against him and leaned in, “Stay with me? I need someone who can talk some sense into me. Someone who can make the hours feel less empty. I’m going insane here all by myself....”

Snape scoffed and rolled her eyes.

Sirius laughed, feeling more like his old self than he had in a long time. He leaned in further intending to kiss her, but Snape rolled her head away and snatched back her wrist. 

“No Black, I don’t hate myself that much yet. Honestly, I shouldn’t be surprised you reached that point first.” 

Snape strutted to the floo and was gone in a flash of flaring green flames. 

Sirius smiled. She might as well have thrown a ball and told him to fetch. Sirius laughed at that thought until his abdomen ached.

He put away the whiskey and made himself some tea instead. Two sugars and a splash of cream.

The next time he saw Severina, she stood aloof and to the side at the Order meeting. She ignored him and his not-actually-subtle attempts to catch her eye. Eventually, he gave up on the subtle approach and walked right up to her. Of course, he had no plan for what to actually say. Thinking that begging her to stay again, would just result in another rejection. He wondered briefly if this was what James felt like whenever Lily refused to go out with him. 

Black’s mind went blank at her bored expression looking up at him. So he said the first thing that came to mind.

"Can I get you a cuppa?”

Her answer was to roll her eyes and ignore him the rest of the meeting.

She refused the first three times, but on the fourth, she nodded slightly and Sirius gave her a cup– two sugars and a splash of cream. Her face was impassive but her lips pursed a little in displeasure. Rather than asking her how she took her tea, Sirius decided to make a game of it. He simply offered her cup after cup, waiting for signs that he made it right. 

On the fifth try he left it black and added six sugars, she took one sip and Sirius thought for a moment that she was about to throw it in his face or upturn it on his head. 

On the seventh, he handed her a cup with a smirk and a wink, “Just how you like your man.”

Snape brought the rim of the cup to her lips and took a sip. Her lips did not twitch, but her eyes crinkled a little and she nodded ever-so-slightly. 

Sirius fought the urge to take her right then and there, up against the wall, in front of the entire Order. 

He could wait. 

He could wait until they all left; until he could peel off her overly concealing robes. He could wait until she was panting with lust; until she was so exhausted from pleasure she'd fall asleep in his arms. She would stay with him all night and then in the morning... 

Well, he knew how she took her tea.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Random inspiration for a second chapter. Hope you like it.

Severina groaned and stretched out the lingering sleep that held her between the sheets of her bed. Her body was pleasantly sore. She breathed in expecting the soothing scents of her room but instead smelled something musky and decidedly male mixed with the stale scent of sex. Her brow creased in confusion, her thoughts still disoriented with sleep. 

Her eyes shot open.

She was in Black’s bedroom at Grimmauld place... alone. She scanned the room for her clothes and her wand... 

No, that’s right, they were still downstairs because Black had been an impatient animal last night. 

The door opened and Black strode in with a cup of tea- black and perfectly brewed. His chest was bare and his trousers were still unbuttoned and hung from his hips. 

“Morning,” he said with a wink and Severina’s body immediately heated from head to toe as if she stepped into a steaming-hot shower. His eyes roamed over her blushing skin and his expression grew hungry. 

Severina swallowed and tried to clear her throat to speak but her mind failed in thinking of a retort to- “morning.” All she could do was watch as Black approached the bed, set down the tea, and climbed over her. His body covered her completely- the sheet and his trousers were all that separating them. He leaned down to kiss her...

“Ugh, Black. Have you been eating your own vomit again?” His morning breath doused her arousal and gave her back her voice and she pushed at his chest. 

He snorted and chuckled while he grabbed his wand from his back pocket, “I’ll have you know that I have never eaten vomit- my own or otherwise,” he pointed his wand at his mouth and cast a cleaning charm, “You know, your breath isn’t a bed of roses either,” and tried to turn his wand on her but she swatted it away.

“Be a good dog and fetch _my_ wand and robes, Black.” Not that she needed a wand to clean her teeth- she waved her hand over her mouth and she immediately felt the tingle of magic working.

“Black?’ He asked with an amused huff, ‘at what point in this relationship are you going to start calling me by my name? And don’t say that Black is my name, you know very well what I mean.”

“This isn’t a relationship, _Black_. This is sex,’ she stated coldly and added quickly, ‘and occasional companionship,” so he couldn’t argue that sometimes they didn’t have sex. Sometimes they... well, they just talked or shared a meal or sat quietly in the library reading (more accurately, Severina sat quietly reading while Black wiggled about until he found a comfortable position to cuddle with her while she tried to ignore him).

“That _is_ a relationship.” He argued, unimpressed.

“No. A relationship would also include commitment and exclusivity.” She pushed him off of her and shifted to the side of the bed, his brow wrinkled in confusion.

Severina pulled at the sheet, trying to wrap it around her as she slipped out of the bed, but Sirius was still laying on it, staring at her in thought. She huffed and tugged again at the sheet until he finally got up from the other side of the bed, letting her have it. 

She turned her back to him and stepped toward her tea. It’d be a shame to let it go cold.

His feet were bare and his steps were soft but she knew he had moved behind her. His arms went around her hips and when she turned to look at him, he lowered himself to his knees. 

He was looking up at her with those damn puppy-dog eyes and practically hugging her thighs, but gods, she loved seeing him on his knees.

“That’s what I want, Sev. I want all of that... everything a relationship entails... I want that with you. Please... I’d be good to you, I promise. I’ll be so good to you, Sev,” and his hands stroked down her thighs.

She resisted biting her lip, but she knew he could see her flush and could probably feel the heat building through the sheet. Severina’s expression revealed nothing, however, as she kept ahold of the sheet with one hand and thread her fingers through his hair with her other, letting her fingernails gently scrape his scalp. His mouth fell open in a silent moan and his eyes became heavy-lidded. 

“You’d like that?’ Severina asked, letting her voice turn sensuous, ‘You’d like to be good to me?’ She leaned over, pulled his head back a little, pressed her cheek against his, and let her lips graze his skin as she whispered, ‘my good boy?” 

His breath turned heavy and she pulled back to watch his Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed deeply.

“I think you’ve got the wrong witch for that.” She straightened, released his hair, and turned to her tea on the dresser, taking a fortifying sip. She wasn’t made out of stone, after all, and Black was... Well, he was...

Persistent. 

He stood and his fingers brushed her hair away from her neck. When he spoke, his words whispered against her skin, “I wish I could tell you. I wish I was better with words, but I’ve tried to show you... Tell me, what more can I do?”

He wrapped his arms around her and held her gently. He was taller and stronger than she was but he never made her feel trapped– he would never dare keep her if she didn’t want to stay. Except, she knew if she left, he would just pursue again until he permeated her mind- both in waking moments that left her distracted and dazed and in dreams that left her wanting in the morning. 

_Hadn’t she hated him not long ago?_ She wondered as she sipped her perfectly brewed tea. 

Her skin grew cold where his body had been and she heard him settle on the bed, but she didn’t look back at him. If he was propped on the headboard with his arms crossed behind his head, his trousers still unclasped just waiting to be unzipped and coaxed down his legs which would be stretched out before him and crossed at the ankles in rebellious nonchalance, well, she wasn’t sure she had had enough tea to resist that image. She drank a mouthful and tried to block out the mental image, but she nearly spat the tea out at his next words:

“I told Remus about us, by the way,” he announced bored and careless.

Severina swallowed the hot tea, carefully set the cup down and turned to him with a look that would have cowered a smarter man, but Black simply smirked and oozed arrogance as he lay on the bed exactly as she had imagined. 

“You told _Lupin_ about us?” She asked slowly.

“Remus is my best mate. Of course, I told him.” He clarified easily.

“Black, you absolute idiot! If Lupin knows then surely he’s told Tonks and if Tonks knows...”

“The whole Order knows,” Black continued with a self-satisfied grin spreading across his face, ‘that _we_ are in a _relationship_.” 

Severina bit her tongue.

“Come back to bed, Sev,” Sirius tried to cajole her with a slight impatient stretch of his body.

Severina wouldn’t give in. Not yet...

“Black, we need to talk,” and at her declaration, he had the sense to look nervous. 

Severina was sure she was experiencing sudden heart palpitations, her palms were sweaty and she felt nausea twist her stomach. Her head felt dizzy, her knees felt unsteady and she wondered if she should sit on the bed, but then she would be too near Black and that was something she couldn’t afford right now. 

“I,’ she started but caught it back in her throat and started again, “Dumbledore would like an extra set of eyes on Potter. He thinks you might be able to come live at Hogwarts as long as you remain in your animagus form whenever anyone outside of the Order is present.” 

Sirius jumped up and opened his mouth to say something but Severina raised her hand to stop him,

“You may not approve of the living arrangements... that Dumbledore suggested, however,” she straightened her spine, “you may choose to negotiate. You may prefer to live in Hagrid’s hut, rather than...”

Sirius was standing nearly chest to chest with her without touching her anywhere, but Severina felt, he might as well be compressing her lungs for as much as she could breathe.

“Where? Rather than where Sev?” Sirius rasped.

Severina swallowed and looked passed his shoulder, “in my quarters.” 

He breathed out, “with you.”

Severina clenched her jaw but otherwise gave no other response. She simply waited for his rejection, his rationale as to why he wasn’t ready for something like that. It was one thing to say he wanted a “relationship,” it was another to jump right into playing house.

Sirius’s fingers gently pressed under her chin, gently requesting her to look at him. Severina’s void and steady gaze met his shining searching eyes. 

“Severina Snape, are you asking me to move in with you?”

“Du—”

“And don’t tell me this was some scheme of Dumbledore’s. I know very well, I was grousing to you just the other day about not having enough protection on Harry.”

Severina straightened, “Yes, well... I abhor whinging,” she stated blandly. “Besides you’d be staying with me under the pretense of my pet.”

Sirius waggled his eyebrows at that and Severina tried to ignore that sudden rush of arousal at her unintentional suggestion.

“So, you may bring your things over at your convenience, if it’s all settled...” Severina started, not realizing the softening of her eyes or the upturning of the corners or her lips.

Sirius beamed at her and opened his mouth to say something but then his face fell in shock at a realization, “You love me,' and then with more certainty, 'You’re in love with me.”

Severina’s eyes widened and blinked in shock. She was about to tell him off for his arrogance... but he was still spouting off, “and all that rot about not being a relationship...” he laughed. Severina crossed her arms, arched her eyebrow, and looked decidedly unamused. “...was what?”

Severina rolled her eyes, “I was trying to do the decent thing and give you an out.” 

Sirius cupped her face between his hands and quickly pecked her lips.

“I don’t need an out. I don’t want one,” and he leaned in to kiss her properly.

She pulled back, “I never said... I never said that I...”

Sirius shook his head, “You don’t have to, but you should know that I... you know that I?” He groaned in frustration.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to say it. Besides, it’s...,’ she pushed the emotion away and said blandly, ‘It’s hard to find someone who can make a good cup of tea.” 

Sirius laughed and continued to laugh until he pulled her in his arms and kept laughing as he dropped his forehead to hers. When his laughter calmed enough, he said with easy laughter lacing his words,

“I love you.” 

Both their bodies stilled at his admission but their hearts hammered within their chests and their breaths came out panting. Severina lifted her chin to meet her lips with his but stopped short and said,

“For the record, you said it first.”

Sirius’s chest laughed and his lips held a grin even as she kissed him.


	3. Chapter 3

“He’s got Padfoot!” Harry shouted. “He’s got Padfoot at the place where it’s hidden!”

Snape stopped with her hand on Umbridge’s door handle.

“Padfoot?” cried Professor Umbridge, looking eagerly from Harry to Snape. “What is Padfoot? Where what is hidden? What does he mean, Snape?”

Snape looked around at Harry. Her face was inscrutable. 

“I have no idea,” said Snape coldly. “Potter, when I want nonsense shouted at me I shall give you a Babbling Beverage. And Crabbe, loosen your hold a little, if Longbottom suffocates it will mean a lot of tedious paperwork, and I am afraid I shall have to mention it on your reference if ever you apply for a job.”

She closed the door behind her with a snap. She made her way towards the dungeons to her rooms. She walked and then she ran. Her heart pounded with Potter’s words echoing over and over again in her head. She flung her door open shouting, running from room to room, 

“Black? Black! Black, damn it, where are you?!”

She reached the last room she hadn’t checked and pulled open the bathroom door. There, lounging in the tub without a care in the world, Sirius lulled his head to look at her with that damn smirk of his. 

“I told you, I’m not answering to Black from you anymore. It’s either Padfoot or Sirius, your pick. I’m running out of jokes to make with my last name. If I use the same jokes too often I might as well start making dad jokes and I’m just not ready for that ye—ummphf.”

Severina grabbed his face and kissed him soundly. When she pulled away, she gripped his hair firmly and almost shook him. She was gasping and her eyes were near tears.

“You fucking answer me, when I call for you, damn it!”

“Shit,” Sirius sat up, splashing water out of the tub and rubbed her side trying to calm her, “What’s wrong? What’s happened?”

Severina straightened herself, “Get dressed and get to Potter. Make sure he sees you and don’t let him do anything stupid. Umbridge has him and his friends. Do your best not to murder her if possible, but if you do, let me know and I’ll help you hide the body.”

Sirius had already gotten out of the tub and was throwing on pants and shirt, but stopped to peck her cheek, “That’s my witch,” he smiled widely.

“Once Potter is secure, meet me at headquarters.”

“Right, love you,” he called behind him without looking at her and she watched him open the door and transform before bounding off. 

_Love you_ , she thought. 

He says it so easily. He says it all the time and it still sticks in her throat. The last person she loved was Lily and losing Lily was the single most painful experience of her life. If anything happened to Sirius before she could tell him…

Severina stopped the thought before it could crush her and went through the floo to Grimmauld Place to alert the Order. She would tell Sirius tonight. When they got back. When Potter’s warning turns out to be nothing but a bad dream… 

———

When Sirius arrived at Grimmauld Place he looked as crazed as he had that night in the shack. 

“I followed their scent to the forest, but I lost them. There were centaur tracks and blood… but not blood I recognized… and thestrals…”

“Thestrals?” Lupin asked. 

Moody growled, “Well, at least we know where they are going. Right then, off to the Ministry.” 

Everyone lined up at the floo. Kingsley went first. Severina knew she would have to stay behind, go back to Hogwarts and wait, she couldn’t blow her cover… but seeing Sirius line up to go into battle to pull Lily’s son out of yet another scrape with the Dark Lord, Severina stepped in beside him.

“Not you Snape,” growled Moody, “Back to Hogwarts with you and wait for Dumbledore’s orders.”

She was about to tear into him, but Sirius kissed her and her bitter retort came out, “Mmfphth…”

Sirius pulled back and winked, “I’ll see you at home.”

“You better.” 

“Yeah, I know. I’ll be there to make tea in the morning, yeah?” He brushed her cheek with his thumb and kissed her again.

“Yeah, that’s never, not going to be weird,” commented Tonks before she went through the flames. 

Moody quickly followed. Lupin chuckled and went in after them. 

“Love you,” Sirius said and he was gone too. 

_Love you._

Severina dropped her face into her hands and paced the floor. She shook her head. They were going to get themselves killed! If Potter would just trust her and not go off… She felt as if she’d aged a decade for each year Potter was at Hogwarts. And Sirius… 

She could not stay here. She could not just sit aside and wait for word that one of them did something foolish and wasn’t coming back… 

No, fuck it. And she went through the floo.

———

Severina arrived just in time to watch the mayhem unfold in the Department of Mysteries. Despite the chaos of battle, her attention was torn between two. Potter and Longbottom were grappling with Malfoy by the steps and Sirius was battling Bellatrix by the veil. 

Lupin stepped in to help Potter and Severina ran to Sirius. Sirius ducked Bella’s jet of red light. He laughed at her. “Come on, you can do better than that!” He yelled. 

Severina had only just reached him when the second jet of light shot from Bella’s wand and struck Sirius squarely on the chest. 

The laughter had not quite died from his face, but his eyes widened in shock. Severina reached out to him as his feet left the ground and he was falling back through the ancient arch and the ragged veil fluttered. Her fingers felt his skin and snapped closed around his wrist and yanked him towards her. She fell backward with Sirius’s weight on top of her. They tumbled to the ground and Bella shrieked.

“TRAITOR!”

Severina still held Sirius’s wrist in a vice-like grip and wouldn’t let go. She had to throw up a wandless _protego_ as Bellatrix sent another jinx their way. Sirius recovered and thrust his wand between them. The flash of his spell struck his cousin in the shoulder and sent her spiraling to the ground. 

Dumbledore must have arrived while they were fighting Bellatrix because suddenly he was there binding Bella. He had the Death Eaters immobilized, awaiting the Aurors to arrive. All the while Bella kept shrieking,

“Snape, you traitor!” 

Dumbledore regarded Severina with understanding eyes that could not hide his disappointment. He silenced Bellatrix but she never stopped screaming silently and glaring daggers at Severina. The other Death Eaters were glaring too: disgust, loathing, hatred. All but Lucius, who looked hurt as if she had betrayed him personally. She supposed she had. 

Sirius helped her to her feet and if he started berating her for showing up and saving his ass… but he wasn’t berating her… he wasn’t looking at her at all. He was looking at the veil. 

“I saw them. James and Lily…” his eyes turned to hers with wonder, “and Reg. Reggie’s there too. They’re just in there.” He said and his head turned back towards the veil. 

Sirius moved as if to step towards the arch. Severina couldn’t breathe and only thought that she needed to get him away from the veil. She tried to step back and pull him with her, but he wouldn’t budge. 

She begged desperately, “Sirius, please, don’t leave me.” 

His head turned back to her and he smiled, “Come with me.”

Severina shook her head. “I can’t yet. Please just stay with me,” she begged and tears welled in her eyes. “I’d go insane here all by myself. I need someone who can teach me to laugh. Someone who can make the hours feel full. Someone who knows I like my tea just how I like my man.’ She laughed tearfully, “Please, Sirius Black, I love you and I need you to stay with me.” 

Tears fell from her eyes onto her cheeks and Sirius looked down on her lovingly and brushed her tears away. 

“Hey, no tears, love. I won’t go without you.” He said.

Severina pulled him again, away from the arch, “Come away, love.”

The further from the veil they got, the more lucid Sirius’s eyes looked. He blinked rapidly once they were a few meters away and looked at Severina in horror.

“Oh god,” he gasped and his body trembled. He pulled her into his chest still saying, “Oh my god…”

Severina wrapped her arms around him and fisted the back of his shirt. “Damn it, Sirius! I almost lost you.” She whimpered into his chest.

Sirius was crying now, “I’m sorry, Sev. I’m so fucking sorry.”

She pulled away to look at him, “Just don’t do it again.”

“Right, yeah, don’t get myself killed again. Got it. Sev, I saw them, I really did.”

“My parents?” Potter asked with a pained longing in his voice that snapped both their attentions to the boy. 

He was looking at the veil as if he meant to walk right through. Severina reached out and snatched Potter’s shirt collar at the same moment Sirius grabbed him around the shoulder and they both pulled him in between them. 

Severina lost it and started berating the boy, “Potter you absolute idiot! What were you thinking coming here? You could’ve gotten you and Longbottom killed! You’re just like your father… No, I take it back you are _worse_ than your father ever was…” She snapped as if that were the height of insults.

Harry stiffened and his face twisted, incensed. He had come to rescue Sirius because _she_ hadn’t given him any indication that she cared at all about Padfoot! She acted as if his being around was a great burden that Dumbledore had forced on her. How was he supposed to know? No one ever told him a bloody thing!

Snape was still yelling at him, insulting him and his father, and Sirius ruffled Harry’s hair fondly. Harry looked up at his godfather. Sirius winked at him and smiled as if Professor Snape wasn’t standing there spitting abuses at them. Seeing Harry’s bewildered expression, Sirius laughed, 

“She’s only upset because she cares and we worried her pretty good tonight.”

“Worried?” She spat, “Worried about you two? Why should I be worried about the two of you? You only throw yourselves into life-threatening situations on the daily. Just one year Potter, just one year could you not try to get yourself killed?! And you,” She turned to Sirius to start tearing into him too, poking him in the chest, but Sirius only laughed and pulled her in and kissed her. 

Harry was inadvertently pushed to he side and stood stunned at seeing his godfather kiss his Potions Professor. He kept thinking that Snape would push Sirius away and slap him and start yelling again, but she didn’t. Her body relaxed and she kissed him back. So shocked at the sight, Harry looked around for someone else to acknowledge what he was seeing was real. 

Tonks, even battered and bruised as she was, was making gagging faces. Moody was shaking his head and keeping an eye on the Death Eaters who were being carted away by the Aurors who just arrived. Neville looked as shocked as he felt. Lupin stepped towards them, looking amused but unsurprised and cleared his throat.

“Harry, we should probably make sure the others are alright. Where are Ro...”

“Others?!” Snape snapped and pulled away from Sirius who couldn’t seem to stop smiling fondly down at Snape. Lupin gave up on defusing their situation and turned to Neville to help him round up the others while Snape continued shouting, “Of course you brought all your little friends into this!”

That hurt. It wasn’t like he wanted to put his friends in danger. It wasn’t like he had asked for any of this. Did she think he liked having Voldemort trying to kill him constantly?

“Well, you won’t be bothered much longer since it’ll be summer and you won’t have to see my face anymore!” Harry snapped back.

Snape glared with fire in her eyes, she straightened her spine and looked down her hooked nose at him.

“If you think Potter, that I’ll let you out of my sight after this stunt you’ve pulled… I don’t care what Dumbledore says. You’ll be staying with us this summer. Knowing you, you’ll be in danger of crossing a muggle street without trying to jump into traffic for the thrill of it.”

Harry wasn’t sure that Snape wasn’t planning to murder him over the summer and blood drained from his face. He looked to Sirius but he was no help. He was beaming between the two of them.

“Harry’s to stay with us this summer?”

Dumbledore stepped up and Harry finally felt a measure of safety. Of course, he wanted to stay with Sirius rather than going back to the Dursley’s, but did Snape have to be there?

“Now, Severina, you know that Harry needs to return to…”

To Harry’s horror, Snape’s response was to pull him back in between herself and Sirius. Sirius wrapped his arms about them both and held them together as if to protect them from Dumbledore’s refusal.

Dumbledore looked at the three of them and settled his gaze on Snape. He shook his head sadly,

“Severina we needed you to stay undercover. Coming here tonight…”

“They needed me here, Albus. Had I stayed away… It doesn’t matter, I made my choice,” and her hand squeezed Harry’s shoulder gently as Sirius held onto them more firmly. 

Albus nodded and smiled. “I suppose there is nothing for it now, then. We should get the students back to Hogwarts. Bring Harry to my office, if you please Severina,” and with that Dumbledore left to help Lupin.

“Yes, Headmaster,” Snape answered dutifully.

Harry looked to her in shock. Was he really going to stay with Sirius all summer? He didn’t have to go back to the Dursley’s? Could Snape really care about him? 

Sirius was pressing his lips to her temple saying, “Thank you,” with emotion shaking his voice. Then he turned to Harry and beamed, “Did you hear that Harry? We’re going to be a regular family, us three.”

Harry threw his arms around his godfather… a family.

Snape crossed her arms and watched the two with a raised eyebrow, but her lips weren’t scowling. She almost looked like she might smile. 

“I suppose you’ll have to work on those dad jokes then, Sirius.”

Sirius threw his head back and laughed. He ruffled Harry’s hair again and pecked Snape’s cheek. 

“Come on you lot, let’s go home. I’ll put on the kettle.” He said with a wink.


End file.
